2013.10.18 - Road Rage
It is just after the main lunch hour in Metropolis. There is traffic on the roads, but nothing like rush hour later on. The sun is out. There is a slight chill in the air, but the smells of autumn are lost amid the car exhaust, blasts of air from the subways below, and cooking food from restaurants and food carts. On the street, amid the low ebb of yellow taxi cabs, several dark SUVs move through the traffic. Their windows are tinted so that folks cannot see into them. They move together and stay close enough that no cars are able to squeeze between them. Further back along the way, Captain America is on his bike. The iconic shield sits in front of him as he makes his way through the cars. The rumble of the bike is low for now as he just works on keeping the SUVs in sight. The Avengers had been contacted about helping with the escort, and Cap was able to get out here. His eyes flick back and forth along the streets as the traffic moves. As the caravan moves along passed a Chinese restaurant, there is the sudden sound of engines roaring to life. From the alley next to the restaurant's kitchen, three high speed bikes come zipping out. The riders are dressed in black leather with heavy black crash helmets. The visors are down and tinted. They seem to be heading towards the SUVs at a quick pace. Huntress would notmally have absolutely zero reason to be here. But, Oracle caught wind of something going on and as one of the few motorcycle-capable and not otherwise busy people, she got sent up from Gotham. She's running a little late from having had to stop once inside the city limits to switch out her more civilian-like helmet and racing jacket for mask, cape, and belt with crossbow holster in place. Huntress is finally ready to start off when the convoy passes, and she revs her Ducati to start out after them... coincidentally at nearly the same time as three rice-burners tear out from the Chinese restaurant just half a block ahead. Last minute errands. Domino didn't expect to be out in this part of town. She -definitely- didn't expect to be running errands in one of the city's most conspicuous cars. But, when the message came through and she got a read on how many zeroes are awaiting the bank account of her choosing, well... The only thing left to do there is drop the hammer and start overtaking traffic like it's going out of style. Thank goodness much of the city is laid out in a grid pattern, straight-line shots are what the glaring red and black '72 Mach 1 happens to excel at. People know when to clear the street when she starts drawing near, there's nothing subtle about the car, or the sounds that it makes. Dark purple tinted sunglasses don't exactly conceal the driver's identity any but they do block out the worst of the sun, the windows rolled down to throw a ratty nest of spiky black hair into even further disarray. Tiny driver for a big car, really. "Don't mind the chick in the midlife crisis Mustang, Gothamites..." When another horn blares she merely glances their way and lifts two half-gloved fingers away from the wheel in a mock salute, muttering "Idiot." She doesn't have far to go before lining up for interception with those SUV's. ~ Target is at ?40.75773 N, 73.985708°W, and moving in a southern--~ Cable is seated at his desk deep below the surface of New York City in his little tunnel lab. Monitors seem to glow with their own energy, giving more light to the dimly lit room. There is a long, deliberate pause before the thought sneaks back onto the cerebral cortex of one albino merc, the wry tones seeping into that grey matter. ~ Oh, wait. You don't have a GPS on that thing. When will you ever get something that is actually practical? ~ Tracking is child's play where Nate sits. He's got Ship, which means he's got access to, well, pretty much anything that happens to be sitting in geosynchronous orbit. That includes spy satellites that are programmed to track. He's got one that is specific to his needs. It's only a button to press that the feed comes up; and with some surprising clarity, Cable can see the two-fingered salute that rises, as well as the dashboard console 'display'. ~ Was that polite? Or necessary? Oh, and you're speeding. ~ Again. The three Asians motorbikes accelerate quickly, weaving in and out of the traffic, with little regard for safety of anyone else. One pops up on its back tire as it moves around a slow moving sedan. Each of the riders reach down to the right side of the bikes and pull small submachine guns from holsters. As they come up behind the second place SUV, the weapons are raised and suddenly begin to chatter as they begin to open fire. The bullet proof glass of the SUV marks with each impact and suddenly their engines rev up as well as they try to pull away from the three assassians. Two lanes over, blue and red lights go off with the cry of a police siren as unmarked cars announce their presence. The traffic is still thick but many try to slow down as the police try to work their way towards the caravan. From behind, Captain America shoves the bike into gear and leaps forward. "We have hostiles coming in, JARVIS," he relays over the Avengers comlink in the red, white, and blue helmet he wears. "Yes. The NYPD have also been notified of your presence, Captain," comes the robotic voice. "Attempting to change traffic lights to precipitate a quick pursuit and capture." "HAL, you are SO gonna owe me for this." Huntress's Ducati snarls and leaps after the three crotch rockets (Hello, kettle, pot calling) that have started firing on the convoy of SUVs. It's kind of risky, but it's the only real modification she's made to her bike and something she's practiced. Steering with only her left hand, she pulls her crosssbow with her right hand, waits for a clear spot, then fires a steel quarrel at the tire of the closest rice-burner. Even if she doesn't take out the tire, maybe it'll hit the bike with enough force to knock it off kilter. If she's aware of a particular star-spangled motorcycle catching up with her or a red muscle car gaining on all of them, she doesn't let it distract her. -Polite?- Domino rolls her eyes skyward with a sigh before leaning forward and deliberately staring up at the clouds while enthusiastically extending a middle finger toward the spy satellite that Cable happens to be watching her progress through. (You reading this, big guy?) She knows where she is. She knows that she's off course. She knows this car isn't practical, certainly not to Cable's requirements. He'd barely fit in the passenger seat. Which, in theory, would happen to be her gain. It would have kept the guy out of her hair for a while. In theory. Damned big brother. She also knows that the current trajectory she's headed at is not connected to the mission Cable figured she happened to be out here for. Nope! Those coordinates are getting passed right on by, with alarming speed. Another shift of gears, another roar and whine of a supercharged V8, another howl of tires in protest, and another few cars around her stomping on the brakes to avoid unsightly insurance claims. "Comin' through!" For as loud as her car is, gunshots are still louder. (CRAP, someone's already on the mark!) Some decisive pedal-work sends the Mustang into a crazy multi-lane slide that barely avoids trading paint with several other vehicles, the rear wheels struggling to find forward grip while continuing to careen out to the side. "-Yes,- that was entirely necessary," she says aloud to an otherwise empty car while drawing one of her sidearms between gear shifts. (Don't ask what I'm up to Nate, don't ask what I'm up to...) Is..is that Huntress up ahead..? And some goon flying the red, white, and bl--ooohcrud. "Things can never be simple, can they?" she mutters with a weary sigh. and the screen before the Tunnel Rat Summers zooms out, keeping remarkable clarity as it does so. One, two, three means that Domino's classic car becomes smaller and the dashboard readouts become less visible to the naked eye. (Though the salute skyward isn't missed!) But, it gives a pretty good view of the environs, which is exactly what it is he wants. "Oh for--" ~ What the hell are you-- ~ ~ Okay, just pull over. ~ Beat. ~ Dom. Pull over. ~ That's two. From the sky, full over New York City (and Gotham) comes a laser beam, landing on the asphalt right before said bright red classic, blowing a hole in the street before the albino merc. ~ Stop! ~ That should get her attention, right? Right? It's not a second later that a rather large mutant lands in the front seat of the car Domino is driving, and he's forced into a rather hunched position. "Can't you get--" Cable digs his feet into the floor board before him and -pushes- the seat back, the sound of *TWAAAANG* coming as the springs are popped with the insult of his forcing it. The front seat is now off its runners, and he's got at least a little more legroom. Headroom will have to wait. Sloughing off his shotgun into the even tinier back seat, Cable looks beside him. "Okay, grab a left." Mission first? "Or.... not." And here they come, ready or not (at least Nate's NOT). "Okay, I'll bite." There's a guy dressed in red, white and blue.. and further down- no clue. They don't register on his 'mutant' list, so-- why, exactly? The all-seeing Timelord isn't really all-seeing? Say it ain't so! The bike that Huntress shot it isn't hit in the tire, but it is hit with enough force to kick the back tire hard to the left. The driver tries to hold it, but is soon crashing. He hits another car and flips upward in a big loop crashing hard into the roof of another car. The other two acclerate and try to move in between the two bigger SUVs but have little success as they have no mass to do it. The cops are pushing through but one yanks hard as the Mustang slides through traffic. It begins its own slide and crashes into several parked cars. Another cop car is coming up on the opposite side of the caravan as the rice burning bikes. Suddenly, one of the windows on the rear SUVs cracks down and several loud pops of a shotgun can be heard. Windows shatter across the way, but nothing is hit as far as pursuers. Traffic lights ahead suddenly go from red to green. The squeel of brakes can be heard as cross street traffic tries to stop quickly. There is a crash of metal and screams of people as the caravan races through the intersection trying to outrun the bike killers. Captain America swerves back and forth, weaving in and out of cars, as he moves faster. He registers the Mustang and Huntress, but his eyes are on the original three. He crouches down low as he tries gain a bit of speed. He pushes hard to move up to the left of the Mustang now, trying to over take it, and get to the SUVs. "JARVIS, I am seeing some other folks getting involved. Someone in a purple costume. Another red mustang. Get me some information quickly." "The Mustang is a 1972 model. Orginally built in Detriot," Captain America swears, "Damnit, JARVIS, I know that. Give me something useful." Huntress kicks her bike into the next gear, leaning like a professional racer to get around the mess of the first Chinese biker down and the police car that failed his driving skill check. Trying to gain on the two remaining motorbikes ahead, she waits again for a ... whoahshit! And abrupt swerve to avoid a car that couldn't stop fast enough at the abrupt traffic light changes forces her to slow down and nearly costs her her favorite weapon. Nearly. She'd rather lose her hand first. "What does it -look- like I'm doing, Wingnut? I'm drivin' here!" Pull over? "What, are you insane? I'm not pulling ov--GAH--Damnit, man!" Insert one orbital laser strike on an already well-potholed street. The 'Stang's front end pitches toward asphalt as Domino stands on the brakes, a cloud of white smoke flowing past the car as it rocks to a violent halt. And there's Cable. And there goes Captain America on his bike, hey-oh! Without looking away from the windshield she asks "Have I mentioned lately that I hate you?" Then he breaks the seat, prompting the albino woman to facepalm with a pained expression about her. Right into the side of her pistol. (Don't have time for this, Dom.) "Extenuating circumstances," she cryptically replies while peeling away from -another- dense white cloud of vaporized radials, the heavy old car stampeding forward after the unlikely convoy that's busy putting distance on the pair. "First: Stay out of my personal business. Second: Stop wrecking my stuff. Third: You got any good reason why I shouldn't be getting on The List of both Captain America and the Huntress somewhere within the next five minutes? Or..y'know. Exchanging live fire with some of Gotham's finest?" she asks with another quick gear shift. "Because odds are definitely looking to be in my favor there." So much for keeping him out of her personal business. Or for keeping this a clean hit, the pale-skinned woman hissing out another curse while swerving to avoid the wiped-out biker now getting passed around into oncoming traffic. She's just going to quietly ignore the fact that she also ran a cop clear off of the road. (Whoops.) On the upside: Green lights ahead! Go go go! "I -am- your personal business, Dom," Cable replies evenly. Even in the midst of going fast (or rather, being pushed back into the now broken seat), he's not too terribly concerned(?) Worried? The sighting of Captain America, now brought a little clearer and -not- through the lens of a satellite, gains the mutant's attention. "And this isn't 'your stuff'. This was probably lifted from," leaning forward, he reaches to pull the glovebox open to rifle through the paperwork. "Ranju Kaur." Looking beside him at the driver, his brows rise, "You don't look like a Ranju Kaur." Wadding the paper back into its compartment, less neatly than it had been, Cable slams it home, and uses that hand to hold on to the frame as Domino climbs the gears once again. "I say, follow the guy in red--" Oh. Pointing at the trio of SUVs now, Nate sits up, pulling his hand in when the cop gets a little too close and run off the road. "Oh." One SUV swears to its left suddenly and hits one of the Rice Burners. The bike bounces to the left, off another car and then is fishtailing as it tries to gain control. The driver hits the brakes and ends up hitting the pavement in sparks and screaming metal. From up ahead, three more bikes break out trying to make their way towards the SUVs and cut it off. They have passengers on the back of the bikes this time who have the weapons, trying to aim behind them at the windshield of the lead SUV. Two more Asian bikers appear from behind coming up behind Huntress as they begin to take wild shots towards the Gotham heroine. The one cop left in pursuit hits the breaks and tries to swerve in behind that trailing SUV. Any heroes, mercs, or bad guys trying to get close will be looking at New York's finest coming sliding at him or her. Cap flies by the Mustang as it suddenly breaks for the flash from the sky. "JARVIS," Cap says as he leans forward, "what the heck was that from the sky?" He zips by and is pushing to try and put himself in front of the convoy. "It was a laser from the sky," comes the computer voice with a matter of fact tone. Huntress makes a few more swerves to avoid cars, fallen over rice-burners... "HOSHIT." She hastily holsters her crossbow and GUNS her Ducati's engine to get past that DUMBASS of a cop that just tried to turn himself into a roadblock before the car completely blocks the road. It's gonna be CLOSE. And now, of course, people are SHOOTING at her too. "You jackasses hurt my bike and even the BAT won't be able to find enough of your corpses to scold me over." Yes, she's mostly muttering to herself, but it's a PROMISE. "That doesn't give you an excuse to butt into everything I do," Dom snaps back to the self-proclaimed Timelord. "But, now that you're here make yourself useful. Pick a target and start shooting. Bonus points if you can take out the second SUV, the target should be in there." Not that she's bothered to say who the target is. Not his business! "Is Ranju holding the keys right now?" she challenges once more, the one pistol already in her hand anxiously rolling around a crooked finger and getting the hammer drawn as she fights to close the distance with the rest of the convoy. "Oh shi--" WHUMP! Two of the Mustang's four wheels leap off of the pavement as the next biker to wipe out gets plowed over by nearly four thousand pounds of very angry Detroit steel. "Hell of a place for a speedbump," she grumbles while ducking her head out the window, another pistol in hand. The bikers aren't going to bother these two terribly much, they kinda have the weight advantage. And twice as many contact points with the highway. She's after much bigger fish: The tires of the first SUV she can lay her sights on. Luckily enough, having dropped behind means they won't risk slamming into that other squad car. The only problem now is that it's..blocking..her shot... "Get out of the way, idiot! Lose control somewhere else! Oh for the love of--" Dom growls while standing on the accelerator. It's not a proper chase until she's pegged redline, darnit! Now catching up to the Captain... As soon as she can pull up beside the Star-Spangled Biker she turns to grin and salute with one of her massive sidearms. "'Scuse us, just passing through!" She's so subtle. "Alright, look. I've done some work with Huntress and you've chatted up SHODAN, maybe we can get some coordination going. Think you can tap into a secured c--of course you can, you're Cable." Sometimes she forgets! "It doesn't?" Huh. Cable sounds a theatric note, and he gestures at the car and the carchase, "Case in point." Leeeeaning way back to the back seat (which he's practically sitting in!), Nate grabs the shotgun he's put into the back. It's not an easy manuevering in the confines of the small car (for him!), but he does indeed manage it such that the end of the barrels are pointed outside and slightly forward. "I'm sure he's got a spare set somewhere," is given as an easy retort. "Probably hanging on a nail in the garage." He grins at Domino and taps the side of his head before he's jostled by that 5'10", 180lb speed bump. Grabbing a hold of the frame once again with his bionic arm this time, he puts finger dents into the steel as he keeps his balance, and reasonable aim. With the pulling even with the Captain, Cable looks to the side and offers the man a shrug, followed with, "Women drivers.." before he returns his attention to the driver in question. "What? SHODAN's freq-- oh.. right. Give me a moment." Or three. Little bionic, or rather, techno-organic body parts are useful at times. He is a walking hotspot. "Okay, Dom. You're plugged in." Now, Cable is a telepath, he is. And if he cared to, he could probably open his shields and do a casual scan. But, this isn't his first rodeo, oh no. What he's sure he'll get is a lot of 'Oh shit!' and 'Owowowowow!' and 'What the hell was that?!' telepathically screamed into the aether for an unsuspecting telepath to catch. He's not really in the mood to get a headache, thankyouverymuch. That said? "It doesn't?" Huh. Cable sounds a theatrical note, and he gestures at the car and the car chase, "Case in point." Leeeeaning way back to the back seat (which he's practically sitting in!), Nate grabs the shotgun he's put into the back. It's not an easy maneuvering in the confines of the small car (for him!), but he does indeed manage it such that the end of the barrels are pointed outside and slightly forward. "I'm sure he's got a spare set somewhere," is given as an easy retort. "Probably hanging on a nail in the garage." He grins at Domino and taps the side of his head before he's jostled by that 5'10", 180lb speed bump. Grabbing a hold of the frame once again with his bionic arm this time, he puts finger dents into the steel as he keeps his balance, and reasonable aim. With the pulling even with the Captain, Cable looks to the side and offers the man a shrug, followed with, "Women drivers.." before he returns his attention to the driver in question. "What? SHODAN's freq-- oh.. right. Give me a moment." Or three. Little bionic, or rather, techno-organic body parts are useful at times. He is a walking hotspot. Well, isn't this lovely! Shift is about, oh, two hours away from having to catch a train to D.C. in order to meet with the Ghanaian Ambassador, then it's back to the island of Genosha (as if those two items weren't ludicrous enough). However, he simply can't ignore a rather pointed tip-off about a certain mafia informant that may have information related to Jackie Estacado. He'd come back to the states to clear his name. He's only gotten himself tangled up in yet another mess. Two hours. Plenty of time. The tip-off may be bogus, but it's not something the African can simply pass up. Not without trying. He's very well aware that he might be getting played. He's quite certain that Cypher wouldn't approve of using one of his high-tech phones to tap into the NYPD's police bands, but, such is life. He'll have plenty of time to apologize later. He's plotted a number of intercept courses, all of which have gone awry. As he races through the city on his Iron 883, he's hoping it's only a matter of time before he strikes pay dirt and finds the ubiquitous high speed pursuit that's blasting all over the police bands. SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-CRUNCH!! Shift yanks the bike hard to the left, narrowly avoiding a fender bender in the intersection ahead of him. Something unintelligible (likely profanity shouted in Dangme) is spat out, but as he comes tearing through the intersection toward the left, his eyes catch sight of that blast coming from above. He's well concealed, wearing his black riding leathers, black leather jacket, and a blacked out helmet that's not exactly necessary for his safety, but quite necessary for protecting his identity. That being said? One might almost read the body language of shock as he stares at the laser blast. It's enough of a distraction that he almost misses the pedestrian coming right out into the road in front of him. SCREEEEEEEEECH!! The Iron 883 comes to a full stop, while the pedestrian looks at Shift and flips him the bird. "Hey! I'm walkin' here! I'm walkin' here! Stupid sonova-" The pedestrian is cut off by a cloud of sublimated rubber and engine fumes. Shift's bike goes screaming around the guy, in pursuit of the cars up ahead. With all the carnage that's been left behind? He's got plenty of room to maneuver past vehicles that have pulled aside, or bikers that have bailed out (or been crushed by one particular Mustang). Still, he holds out on pushing the bike to its limits. He's got reason to hang back and see how things play out. "Especially with big fucking lasers coming from de sky!" he says out loud, venting some of his frustration. The Race is on and here comes Pride in the back stretch. There are two massive black SUVs racing down the streets of New York. A NYPD unmarked patrol car is third in line as it tries to ward off attacks from the rear. Two Rice Burners have crashed but a third is zipping along the left side trying to get a shot. Three more Burners are in front with passnegers firing back towards the caravan. There are Bikers coming up from the rear firing at Huntress and the cop car. Cap is pushing up the left side, trying to protect the front of the convoy, as the Mustang carrying Domino and Cable pull up along side him. Cap turns his head slightly as the Mustang comes up from his left. He can't really hear what they are saying but sees Cable coming out of the passenger window with a weapon pointing at the second SUV. His eyes go wide within his helmet and he is grabbing at his shield attached to the front of the bike. He pulls it off and hits the brakes enough to drop right into Cable's line of fire. The shot hits the shield. If he was braced on solid ground, no problem. On a bike, Cap is sent sailing sideways hitting the SUV with a loud thud. He loses ground as the convoy shoots by him as he has to fight to regain control of his bike. "Sir, I am monitoring several other communications and signals in the air. If you like, I could patch you in?" JARVIS comments as if Cap was just strolling down the street. "Yes," Cap says rather sharply. "You are online with two different loops." Cap guns the motor and begins to race back towards the group as he sees the Iron 883 appear on the street. "This is Captain America! Identify yourselves!" Bullets fly back and forth now as the bikes in front have an unimpeeded shot back at the first SUV. The glass is bullet proof still, and the SUV accelerates into the chase. It catches one biker and yeah, runs over it, as it falls in front. The other two break to the left and right, trying to get better shots. Huntress can't believe she actually made it past that wannabe roadblock cop car. But, she doesn't have time to really think about it as her comlink abruptly starts picking up MORE than just Oracle's computery voice. "The F..?" She stops herself and devotes her attention to firing a bolt back at one of the jackasses chasing her. They have HORRID aim, but even with bad aim one of them might get in a lucky shot and then she's street pizza. Or worse, they'll fuck up her bike. Crunch..? What goes 'crunch' from overhead, and on Cable's side of the car? Dom quickly glances his way, and just as quickly scowls. "Oh, you did -not- just do what I think you did..." Finger indentations. In the roof. "-This- is why we can't have nice things, Cable! I don't even -know- how you can still have the same shotgun with how you treat the gear! You know what--fine. It's still his car, I don't want it anymore. I'm in the middle of a high speed guns-enabled chase in -Gotham- and the only damage it's sustained only happened after you plunked your half-ton ass into the seat." She's about ready to smack the bigger mutant upside the head for the 'women drivers' remark until he mentions having an open channel to the nearest Bird of Prey. "Hey, this thing working? We're on your five o'clock. The giant red thing, yeah. Hi!" she adds with another wave through the windshield. "Just think of us as your mobile communications center for the duration of this hit--mission--this mission." Ahem. Then, eyes wide behind her sunglasses, Dom turns to Cable and mouthes 'Did you just shoot Captain America?' As if these two weren't already getting themselves into a world of trouble lately. Oh, and now he's patched into the coms, as well! "Hey, uh..you alright back there, big guy? Don't know if you remember me, we've never had a chance to kick back and chat over drinks. So..yeah. Past, meet Future." Captain, Cable. "We're just here to help, don't mind us!" (And if a random shot just happened to 'accidentally' take out the guy I'm after, well..that'd be awful unlucky for everyone else, wouldn't it?) One stray shot drills a hole clean through the center of their windshield, right past both of their heads. Dom once more glances to Mister Future then back to the chase. Okay, that's quite enough chatter. A quick left-right swerve causes the heavy Mustang to drift across the lanes, which..just so happens to give her a great sight picture on a couple of those bikers. The first of two 10mm sidearms speaks with authority, several times. Who needs a direct telecommunication line when one has access to a familiar mind seated right next to him? It's an easy enough link; Nate can do it in his sleep (if he slept, that is). The sharp report of his shotgun gives the weapon a kick, though much less so in the paws of the large mutant. The shot is intended for the bike that is careening towards one of the SUVs, but the well used (and well maintained- well done!) shield is suddenly in the way, and the blast is absorbed by the artefact. That's gotta hurt! Cap goes flying sideways, but at least he's still in the saddle. "Oops, sorry about 'bout that," is given in apology. But, he put the shield up there on purpose! Who does that?! He's got a free shot now, and leaning on the side, Cable truly rides 'shot gun' (even if he does look ridiculous in the car!). "What?" Nate spares a glance for the driver. "Finger- oh. Not as if anyone'll get my fingerprints off of-- Oh." Nope. Not concerned about that, apparently. Doesn't take a telepath to read that! "My shotgun kills. This car-- okay, with you driving, has a pretty good death tally too." He'll give her that. "But it's got more than all your..okay, maybe not." Dom's announcement over the com (and yes, he can tell when her attention moves, and he breathes a brief sigh of relief before squeezing the trigger deliberately...) "What? Who? No!" Nate looks out the window again, and registers the whole Red White and Blue motif and looks back, "Okay, maybe. But he got in the way!" As Domino makes her move, however, showing the side of the 'Stang briefly, the barrel wavers, and as that second report comes out, the side mirror on his side suddenly explodes in a burst of mirror and plastic. Captain America?? Why is Captain America now coming in over his NYPD feeds? Shift thumbs a button on his bike's controls. "Copy dat, dis is Lieutenant Get-Off-My-Channel!" Scowling, the African his another button, one he thought was supposed to scramble the signal. Instead, it blasts the feed with a screeching jamming signal, which just so happens to blast onto the NYPD bands as well. A sharp wince and Shift jerks his head to the left, the screaming pain racking his ears. A few choice words are uttered, before he hits the same button, cutting off the jamming signal. "Oops!" With a quick yank to the right, Shift's bike darts around the most recently downed biker, who's flopping about on the road like a dead fish. With a twist of the throttle, he begins gaining on the action, trying to piece together which pieces of the chase are trying to protect the target, and which ones are trying to take it out. As he draws closer, a number of stray bullets come his way. Three bullet holes appear from front to back in the jacket covering his chest, and a hole gets shattered through the front of his helmet. Each strike sends small tufts of black smoke into the air behind him, which twirl about in the air as if they were alive. "Damnit," he curses. "That's gonna leave a mark!" Freshly angered, he pushes the Iron 883 toward its limit, whipping around to the right. As he gains on the leaders of this pack, however, he still hasn't reached for any kind of weapon. The driver clad in black merely seems hell bent on getting up there to the front. Well, likely some other traffic is being shrugged aside or otherwise diverted... forcefully in some cases. A corvette is toolin' along as its rich lawyer owner suddenly notices the oncoming chaos. He turns at the last moment, gets clipped by one of the other vehicles involved in all of this and ends up going the wrong way down a one way street. This gives the oncoming traffic very few options. On her SHIELD Com, Carol was told that there was some sort of vehicular clusterfu** approaching her location. She was on the side of the road, having a hot dog and a coke when she got the call. "Ma'am, it looks like Captain America is on the scene." the SHIELD dispatcher tells her after he broadcasts his own ID and demands identification. "Patch me in if you can Andy." she says as she tosses the remnants of her snack into a trash can and starts her Ducati, gunning the engine on the Italian built Olive-Burner and then peels out. Now, that Corvette is just turned into oncoming traffic, and cars veer right and left to avoid it, but one red Ducati uses the hood of the sports car as a ramp, and is suddenly in the air, soaring directly over Huntress's head like some slow motion movie scene, before landing and turning to join the pursuit. "Danvers here Cap. Permission to join and assist?" Yeah, that's the same bike... -and- rider, from the event with the Kree Sentry up north. But she aims a single hand back and fires a low power photon blast to try to take out one of the tires of a vehicle pursuing and shooting at Huntress.... Several of the attacking Asian bikers go down. Cable's shotgun blasts catches the last of the orignal three bikers. The biker is thrown off his bike by impact. He crashes into the side of a taxi that had pulled over from the side of the road. He slumps down unmoving. Huntress gets one from behind her. That driver is also just knocked backwards. The bike goes out of control and crashes into the side of a city bus, crumbling the small bike. Carol also gets one that is behind the pursuers. The cop in back of the convoy begins to accelerate. He swings out to his left and is coming up behind the Mustang. He tries to bump the back end of the Mustang as hard as he can trying to get the red muscle car out of the chase. From ahead, another traffic intersection is blocked off but now NYPD cruisers are entering the chase. They swing out fast moving in front of the convoy trying to protect from the two shooters still in front. With a loud screech of brakes, they move to cut off Shift even as he accelerates towards the front. Another cruiser is coming rapidly up from behind the chase, sirens blaring loudly. "To all that can hear the sound of my voice," begins Captain America, "the convoy is under protection of the New York Police Department, FBI, and the Avengers." He is pushing his bike as hard as he can now as he attempts to catch up to the high speed chase. He narrowly misses stopped cars and a door opening suddenly. "Danvers, I need you to cover the rear of the line. Anything looks threatening, use extreme prejudice. Anyone that is here to help, let me know now or Captain Marvel and I will be highly upset." Huntress fires off another quarrel at one of the remaining rice-burners chasing them, then ducks her head and cusses as Carol makes a VERY grand entrance. "FUCK!" Yes, that likely carried quite clearly over the comlink that's now got everyone listening in. She recognizes another Ducati and figures its rider is a friendly so doesn't take her last shot at Carol. When Cap makes a shout-out, she replies curtly. "Huntress. Oracle sent me." 'Okay, maybe. But he got in the way!' "Fair enough," Domino casually replies before the thunder of Cable's shotgun going off causes her to flinch. Not because of the trigger being pulled. Because he took out the mirror. "That's not helping, Nate." (Buckshot in mirror may be closer than it appears.) Okay. The car's definitely not going to survive this trip. She didn't have to pay for it, so there's that. Ammo's still expensive. With the Mach 1 straightened out she focuses on the drive, which involves laying on the accelerator all over again. The engine responds in rib-vibrating harmony coupled with the skull-piercing whine of a twin-screw supercharger aiding the fight, rocketing the blunt front end of their car toward the rear wheel of another enemy biker. "Rally pass!" She still loves this trick. Now there's -another- bike flying overhead?! "Who the hell keeps inviting all of these people!" ..Wait. She knows this one. Alright, that's now -three- ..let's go with -two- high-ranked hero sorts, one Gothalante, one guy in black that seems impervious to weapons fire, he's an unknown in all of this. But, bikers! Maybe they're faster on the throttle and much more agile but once their Ford-branded street-legal tank gets up to speed she'll bet good money that not even those newer made SUV's will be able to stop it. Like that idiot cop behind them. "I'll tell you who isn't helping," she calls out for Cable's transmitting services before she suddenly holds in the clutch and slams on the brakes. CRUNCH! "That idiot rookie that keeps bumper-checking me! Seriously, that might have actually scratched the chrome!" (Aah, they don't make 'em like they used to...) Huhn. Did get a biker even if he shattered the mirror. Looking to the side at Domino, Cable raises his brows at his partner as 'Rally pass!' is announced. Oh, goodie! Once again, he's put in a position where he has to hold on- and dammit, there will be more dents! As the police begin to tap at their bumper, however, Nate has to take a couple of seconds in order to maneuver himself around in order to look backwards. (He no longer has a mirror to look through!) Shaking his head, the mutant reaches into his jacket pocket and brings out a flash-bang grenade. "Flash out," is announced rather casually, followed by, "Don't look in your rear view." Of course, the moment anyone says not to do something? The pin is pulled and his hand comes out the window and flicks the grenade, using the speed of the cars, the wind, direction-- The announcement that comes over Domino's com, then, brings Nate's attention back around and his expression is that of bemusement. "Help?" Well, not technically? Kinda? Sorta? "Are we helping?" Time to make a quick decision. Shift may not exactly be in this to protect the mafia informant, but he's very much interested in keeping the target alive. Flipping the channel back to life, he answers Captain America's call. "Shift!" That first message could easily be misunderstood as scatological, given all the noise. Maybe the accent will give it away? "Here to help. Tell Captain Mahvel its Shif-" Unfortunately, there's no time for him to finish the message. NYPD incoming! A quick bank to the left and the Iron 883 narrowly avoids a violent collision with the first NYPD cruiser. A feathering of the front brake, a bracing of the hands, and a heavy lean to the right. The Iron 883 pulls off a skilled turn, weaving through the NYPD as they try to stop him, and fail. However, he's shed precious speed! Pushing his body weight forward and downward, Shift grimaces as the Harley burns into the red. The better part of him suggests turning off and getting the hell out of dodge before its too late. The stubborn side wins this time. The Iron 883 blows past the front of the convoy, ahead of the bikers up front, and slips between two cop cars. The mutant riding it is undergoing an invisible transformation beneath all of his leathers, flesh and bone turning into something much, much harder than flesh and bone. This is really going to hurt... his poor, poor bike. Shift lifts his legs up and plants his boots on the seat beneath him. A quick jab of the brakes, a dangerously hard yank to the left, and the Iron 883 goes down. Shift pumps his legs and goes airborne, headed straight toward one of those riders up front. The two collide with an unholy --crack!--, and the fellow on the receiving end of a Shift-shaped battering ram screams at the top of his voice until a sharp collision with the front most SUB knocks the wind right out of him. The biker falls off to the side, while Shift goes tumbling up and onto the SUV's rooftop. A hand catches hold of the luggage rack, and holds on tight. Grimacing, Shift looks onward just in time to see his precious bike, skidding off the road and onto the sidewalk. The pedestrians scamper away just in time, and it thuds into the side of a building, coming to a final rest. "Great," he mutters to himself with no shortage of sarcasm. "Now I'm on de top of dis fucking cah." Well, that's one way to get closer to the target! "Danvers, it sounds as if this is an attack on a convoy intended to transfer a witness in an organized crime case." says Andy over Carol's comm. "Good Copy." replies Carol as she lets off the throttle a bit and follows Cap's order to cover the rear. "Cap, just say the word and this goes into full on blatant mode." Yeah, she's keeping to bikes and minor displays of power for now, but... she's prepared to pull out all the stops if need be. And she starts swerving to interfere with pursuers coming up from behind. But she notices a small detail. A small ball shaped object being tossed out of the Mach 1. "Cap, that Mustang, tell me those are legitimate targets... that's a frag they just threw at a cop car." she says as she pulls a foot off one side of her bike and kicks a guy trying to accelerate past her off the road, down an alley, and into a brick wall at the end of the alley. The lead SUV swerves as the driver hears the loud thump on top of the roof of Shift landing up there, but manages to keep moving forward. The cops up front try to pin Shift in, but as he jumps and the bike goes, they bump into each other and suddenly bounce outward crashing through a couple store windows on either side of the street. Only one rider is left up front and suddenly that is hit by the front of the Mustang. It wobbles back and forth before being knocked to the side and goes flying down an ally to end up crashed into a dumpster. In the back of the line, another Rice Burner goes down under Huntress's shot. There are still two more back there. They take shots towards Huntress and Carol as she moves to cover the rear. The flash bang goes off. The loud crack and bright light catches the cop fully in the windshield. The car loses control and then completely cuts hard right sending it broadside into bus shelter. Plastic and glass shatter and go every where. "Shift. Huntress," Captain America confirms over the radio. He moves to avoid the cop car that goes flying out of control and is now moving up behind the Mustang. "Danvers, I am assuming the Mach 1 is a hostile. I have heard only limited information from them. Danvers, go for the engine. Huntress, go for the tires." The red, white, and blue helmet looks to the top of the convoy to where Shift is. "Shift....hold on." "Sir, I should point out that the luggage rack was not designed for high torque. Your ally on the roof will end up with the rack in his hand in approximately 5...4...3...2..." There is a rip of metal and plastic from the top of the SUV with Shift as it begins to give way. Huntress has to swerve around still more debris, taking her last shot at one of the two remaining rice-burners chasing them. "Kinda busy here," is her only reply to Captain America's attempt to boss her around. At least he's up front and honest about it, unlike SOME people she knows. Now something she's not had ENOUGH practice at. Reloading her crossbow while travelling at full speed. This could be ... bad. With the com chatter cutting back in Domino comes to a conclusion of her own. "Looks like we aren't making any friends out here today, Nate." Maybe she could talk them out of it, but Cable -did- kinda shoot Captain America back there... Weigh some odds. The oddss of taking out the target at this point? Very slim, even by her standards. The odds of the car lasting a full-on assault from -everyone yet remaining?- In a word: Poor. At this point anything worth doing isn't worth the effort to do it, and she in particular would rather not bring down the wrath of SHODAN, the Birds of Prey, all of GCPD, AND the Avengers just with one pull of the trigger. This one's a wash. With the reports coming through for the others to start attacking the giant red mobile engine platform Dom breathes out a little sigh and turns toward Cable, no longer caring about what's in the road ahead of them. "Sounds like a good time for us to telefrag this one." Once more she looks back to the dashboard, the albino smirking and patting the well preserved vinyl. "It's been fun." "You were the one who aborted the mission," Cable calls back across the short distance. "Repeat after me. 'Mission first'." Uh huh. Could have been his appearance in the too-small-for-Cable-car. But? "Yeah," he agrees slowly, "Time to telefrag. Sorry Ranju." Pulling his shotgun close, Nate takes hold of whatever Dom doesn't have hands for (or a holster for!) before he reaches out to take a hold of the albino merc. "Bodyslide by two, Ship!" In the next moment, the pair of people that were in the (sorta) front seat are gone, nowhere to be seen, leaving behind a primed fragmentation grenade. When that goes up, it'll be... remarkable. (And Mr. Kaur will be able to collect the insurance money on the car!) Somewhere out in space, upon a cloaked spaceship, a pair of travelers re-coalesce, the words echoing in the vessel, "Repeat after me. Mission. First." Yep. Shift is certainly holding on. He's in way too deep, and as the stubborn side retreats, he's realizing that there's almost no way he's going to get done what he came here to do. That being said? There's still one goal left. Keep the mafia informant alive. Craning his still-helmeted head about, he peers at the Mustang as it gains. Then his eyes take stock of the others, piecing a few things together. Before he can make another move, however? Rrrrip! Shift does, in fact, go airborne. He also has a large piece of the luggage rack in hand. Halfway through his unintentional flight, however, the luggage rack, helmet, and all of the leathers go limp, falling to the pavement. A cloud of swirling, black gas emerges, the tendrils violently fighting to stay together with the passing air. It's just managed to form into the shape of a man, when the now-unmanned Mustang plows through it, scattering it for a second or two before the tendrils snap back together. The tendrils solidify, and Shift is there, clad in his X-Men uniform. Mask on, of course. He's dizzy as hell, and has to drop to one knee and place a free hand on the pavement for support. However, he looks on as the chase escapes him, and lets loose a heavy sigh. "Well... shit." Yeah, things are about to go blatant here. Carol is back there, having literally de-roaded one of the bikers. The guy might be broken in a bunch of places over there, when Cap tells her to go for the engine of the car -ahead- of her. Engines on those models are in front. So... okay... she guns her engine and there's more to it than that. Using her own flight power and strength, she pushes the bike faster and trying to stay -somewhat- subtle, it somehow pulls another movie stunt... it jumps without a ramp. She was -going- to catch Shift mid-air but instead she rockets over the Mutang and when she sees the whole outfit go limp... she knows what it means. It means Shift is fine. So she points a hand down at the Mutang and fires. A golden blast rips through where the engine used to be and she lands... gently... beside the SUV with the protectee in it. "Mustang's empty Cap." she remarks... and then the Frag left behind goes off. It's a good thing she's in front of it and not driving -towards- the wreckage. Sorry Huntress! Now's not a good time to reload! . . o o O O(Man, I could do stunts in movies if I kept this up.) she thinks as she adds over the comm. "I'm with the charge." The Mustang explodes. The force hits Captain Marvel, but the wreckage also goes every where. There is a big pock mark left in the street even as car alarms go off from all the cars that are struck by exploding Mustang. Store windows explode. People hit the ground, but there is still some cuts and bruises from the shards that fly out. Captain America turns the bike sideways and hits the brakes hard. He is pulling out the shield and up in front of him as bits of classic automobile strike hard. "JARVIS! Can you track them? Where did they go?" He looks towards where Huntress is speeding along hoping she gets out of the way of the wreck. "Perhaps they went no where, sir?" comes the robotic voice of JARVIS with *perhaps* just a touch of DeForest Kelley in the tone. The convoy and police escort scream off down the street, but it appears as if the threat is over. Huntress is still trying to figure out how to reload her crossbow when a guy wearing an X-suit abruptly appears in front of her. Now, proof that Ducati is superior. She stops on a quarter (the bike's got a bit too much engine to stop on a dime) about a foot and a half from mowing Shift over. "The FUCK, man?" Yes, she just cussed in Captain Effing America's ear again. And, maybe that was actually for the best, because she's in the process of stopping for Shift when the Mustang explodes, and HOPEFULLY her Ducati took minimal damage from the shock wave and from the flying shrapnel. She was NOT prepared for that. Category:Log